Nongbet, whose side suffered a 0-3 drubbing at the hands
of the Arrows, also felt that the Ambedkar Stadium playing
surface was hard which made it difficult for his players to
control the ball.

The Arrows, however, produced a fine display of passing
football on that pitch.

"We played our previous match on December 23 (at home in
Shillong) and we are playing here three days later. There is
only two days gap and out of these two days, one is travelling
day. It (the schedule) has taken a toll on our team. I hope
the AIFF will look into this," Nongbet said at the post-match
press conference.

"The 2pm start is also not ideal. It could have been 4pm
or 5:30pm," he added.

Talking about the match, he said, "The Arrows boys really
played very well. We were totally outplayed in the first half.
We press hard and tried to find the equaliser in the second
half but the red card (on ) stopped us," he said.

"The playing pitch also did not help. It was hard and my
players had problems in controlling and passing the ball."

Otherwise, the Lajong coach was all praise of the
opposition players.

Indian Arrows assistant coach Floyd Pinto said his
players gave something extra on the field and that won the
match.

"We focused on being organised and that won us the match.
What impressed me that these boys gave their extra on the
pitch and that is what led us over the line. We kept the ball
very well and we rotated the ball keeping decent possession,"
he said.

"The substitutes won us the match as even a 1-0 lead over
Lajong was not enough," said Pinto who was standing in as
coach in the absence of Luis Norton de Matos.

"Both Rahul and Nongdamba were sharp in the final third
and if we had kept dropping back then a 1-0 lead would not
have been enough. The substitutes came to the ground and
wanted to prove something and they did that," he said.

Pinto said the "most important thing for the team was to
keep the momentum going and continue with the form they have
right now"